


christmas!

by bluecalicocat



Series: young, dumb and in love [3]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Christmas, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Fluff, Gift Exchange, Han Jisung | Han-centric, Humor, Idiots in Love, Kissing, Lee Minho | Lee Know-centric, Living Together, M/M, Stray Kids are a family, art major jisung, there's an attempt at making bread
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-25
Updated: 2019-12-25
Packaged: 2021-02-25 22:00:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,539
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21952594
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bluecalicocat/pseuds/bluecalicocat
Summary: It starts with a question.They’re sitting on the couch in the dorm, a documentary playing on the TV that neither of them care much about. Jisung is in Minho’s lap as the older gently threads his fingers through his hair and they both have their eyes on the screen in front. It’s quiet until Minho speaks.“Are you going home for Christmas?”spoiler alert: he's not. neither of them are.aka minsung celebrate christmas with some of their friends and it's all very wholesome
Relationships: Han Jisung | Han/Lee Minho | Lee Know, Minor or Background Relationship(s)
Series: young, dumb and in love [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565239
Comments: 10
Kudos: 234





	christmas!

It starts with a question.

They’re sitting on the couch in the dorm, a documentary playing on the TV that neither of them care much about. Jisung is in Minho’s lap as the older gently threads his fingers through his hair and they both have their eyes on the screen in front.

It’s quiet until Minho speaks.

“Are you going home for Christmas?” he asks, not stopping the threading as he talks. Jisung hums.

“Going home where? My parents are in Malaysia”, he reminds the other. Minho stops moving his hand at this. To be honest, he hadn’t thought of that, didn’t remember that Jisung’s family isn’t here for him to go home to.

“Oh. Right.”

It’s been quite a while since Jisung first moved in, and he hasn’t talked about his parents a lot after that, so Minho hasn’t really thought about the fact that they’re not even in the country right now.

“Are you going home, hyung?” Jisung continues, leaning away a little so that he can turn to face Minho. The older has to force himself not to react to the question. After all, he was the one who started the conversation, so he should have expected the question to be returned.

Jisung doesn’t know it, but Minho doesn’t exactly have a home to go back to. Or well, it exists, but he hasn’t been welcome there for a while now, something his parents made very clear the last time he left.

“No.” He pauses just a second too long before clearing his throat. “No, I’m not.”

Jisung must sense that there’s more to it, but Minho is insanely grateful that the younger doesn’t push it, because he doesn’t think he’d be able to talk about it right now. The small smile Jisung sends him is oddly comforting considering the boy doesn’t know anything about the situation.

They settle down again and continue watching whatever’s playing in front of them.

-

It starts with a question, and it continues with a comment.

“You know, I’ve never spent Christmas without my family”, Jisung says as he’s doing the dishes a few days later. Minho is sitting on the countertop next to him to, quote unquote, “help”. There’s not actually much helping going on, but in his defense, he has Dori in his lap and she’s way too cute not to be petted. Plus, keeping Jisung company should count as a way of helping him since it keeps him from getting bored, right?

“I have”, Minho hums. “Last year I spent it here, with Changbin, because his parents were on a business trip. They came home on Christmas day, but I spent maybe half of it with him.”

“Wait. If neither of us is going home this year, that means we’re both gonna be here together.”

Minho looks at the younger, who looks like he just made a shocking discovery as he stares off into space. Then he turns his bright eyes to Minho and smiles.

“Did you just realize that?” Minho wonders. He thought they’d already established the fact that they would both be here with each other on Christmas. Apparently Jisung hasn’t thought of that, because the boy nods.

“Yeah. Does that mean we’re gonna celebrate it with each other?”

Minho stops himself from saying yes immediately, and instead takes a second to formulate a less rushed response to that question.

“I mean, yeah? If you want to”, he ends up saying, failing to see how the other’s eyes are practically glowing already.

Minho watches Dori as she walks away from him across the counter just as Jisung puts down the last plate on the drying rack.

“Hyung! We should have a Christmas dinner”, Jisung says with a huge smile on his face. Minho’s never been much for Christmas, but the expression on Jisung’s face is enough to erase all those thoughts from his mind.

He leans back and looks at the younger.

“A Christmas dinner? With who?”

“You, me, and we could invite all the people we know that aren’t going home for Christmas, either”, Jisung suggests. To be honest, that sounds kind of nice, though Minho isn’t sure if he knows anyone that’s staying here for Christmas. He can’t think of anyone aside from himself and Sungie.

“I mean, yeah, that’s a nice idea, but I don’t know anyone who’s staying”, he says. It does nothing to dull Jisung’s spark.

“That’s fine, I know three. No, wait, probably four.” Minho gives a slight raise of his eyebrows at this, a gesture that Jisung knows is encouragement for him to continue. “Chan hyung and Felix, since their families are in Australia. And then Hyunjin, because… Yeah. And Jeongin too, because his parents are on a business trip or something.”

That doesn’t sound too bad. The only person that Minho hasn’t met is Jeongin, the freshman who’s apparently a year younger than Jisung and his other freshman friends. Jeongin has skipped a grade, if Minho remembers correctly.

“Yeah, let’s do that. We’ll invite them here on Christmas and have dinner together.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Jisung smiles.

-

The plan turns into reality without too much effort on their part. All of Jisung’s friends accept the invitations and even offer to bring most of the food, but the responsibility of making bread falls on the hosts, which is how the two boyfriends find themselves standing in the kitchen on Christmas day. Both are staring at the plate they just put down on the counter with matching looks of judgment on their faces.

“We messed up the bread”, Minho announces, as if that wasn’t obvious already.

“Hyung! We have two plastic brooms!” Jisung exclaims, which makes the older raise his eyebrows. That has literally nothing to do with what he just said, but given the way Jisung is looking at him, it seems like the younger thinks so.

He shifts his weight and crosses his arms, still with his eyes on the other boy.

“Okay. Tell me your idea.”

He’s not so sure he wants to know what their messed up bread and two plastic brooms have in common, but at the same time, he’s kind of curious now.

Isn’t there a saying, something along the lines of curiosity killed the cat? Well, Minho is a curious cat, and he thinks that if this kills him then it will be worth it.

Jisung doesn’t waste any time explaining his idea, and when he’s done, the glow of Minho’s eyes could rival Jisung’s own.

They’ll probably regret it once everyone else arrives, which should be within an hour from now, but at least they’ll have a good time while waiting.

“That is a brilliant idea”, Minho says. “Let’s go get the brooms.”

-

Chan and Jeongin are the first ones to arrive. When Jisung opens the door for them, his hair messy and looking just a tad bit disheveled, they both make similar grimaces.

“I’m not sure I want to know what happened here”, Jeongin says instinctively. Jisung simply grins and steps aside, gesturing for them to come inside and see the rest of the trouble they’ve caused.

“Hi, welcome, pleasure to have you here”, he says as they step past, sounding as if he’s reading from a script. “We tried to make bread. As you can see.”

At this, both boys turn their eyes to the kitchen, and consequently lay eyes on the mess that is their kitchen counter. All the ingredients are spread out, some of them spilled, and there are bowls and other kinds of utensils laying around.

Chan nods slowly.

“Looks like you had fun..?” he comments, looking to Sungie, who agrees immediately.

Then, Jeongin points something out that Chan somehow missed when he first glanced over the kitchen.

“Jisung hyung, why are there two brooms in the sink?” the youngest asks.

True to what he said, when Chan turns in the direction of the kitchen sink, he sees two tall brooms sticking up from it. They’re neon green, but there are suspicious stains of red on both of them.

“Is that…” Chan begins, only to be interrupted by Jisung.

“No, no! It’s just paint! I shouldn’t have left my colors out…”

He mumbles the last part to himself, but the others still hear him. In all honesty, it only raises more questions. There’s a plate of mostly burnt bread, two plastic brooms with paint stains on them, and a whole mess of ingredients in their kitchen. Any normal person would have questions about that.

“Do you two have an explanation for this?” Chan asks, turning back to his dongsaeng. He’s very interested to hear Jisung’s answer.

“Actually, we came up with four different explanations while we were waiting for you to get here”, Jisung replies cheekily.

“You can pick your favorite”, a second voice adds, and all three of them turn around to see Minho stepping into the room behind them.

“The real one, please”, Jeongin says, and he sounds way too polite compared to how he usually acts. Jisung squints toward him suspiciously while Minho grins.

“Sure thing.”

Jisung only looks suspicious about Jeongin for one more second before launching into the explanation, deliberately leaving out the parts that he doesn’t think his hyung would like to hear.

“So, we tried to make bread and failed, but then I remembered that we have two plastic brooms…”

“And came up with the most brilliant idea ever”, Minho chimes in. Jisung sends him a quick grin before continuing.

“So we played hockey.”

Their two guests stare for a few more seconds. They both seem to realize at the same that that’s the end of Jisung’s explanation, even though it hasn’t explained a lot about what happened. A grin slowly spread over Jeongin’s face, while Chan scrunches his nose in confusion.

“You… played hockey?” the older repeats questioningly. Jisung nods.

“Yeah! With the plastic brooms, and we used the bread as our puck.”

Chan looks between them.

“In your dorm?” They both nod again. “What if you had gotten injured? Or maybe more likely, you could have broken something.”

“We’re college students”, Minho deadpans. “How many valuable things do you think we could possibly own?”

He has a point.

Chan seems to have more to say about this, but Jeongin doesn’t care as much about their bad decisions and instead hurries to say something before the scolding Chan is about to give has a chance to start.

“We brought food!” he says, holding up a bag that the two boys haven’t noticed until now. “And unlike you, we weren’t dumb enough to attempt making it ourselves, so it’s just from the grocery store. But still. We bought it.”

Minho thanks them and takes the food while Jisung continues explaining what they’ve been up to.

“We were going to set the table, but then we realized that we don’t have a kitchen table and usually just eat on the countertops, but there are only two chairs there, so all of us can’t do that.”

The three of them follow Minho into the living room, where he puts the bag of food down on the low table.

“So we thought we could eat in the living room”, Minho takes over as he turns back toward the others with a small smile. “If that’s okay with you.”

“Yeah, of course”, Chan says.

“I don’t think anyone in this building has a kitchen table”, Jeongin comments. “Besides, it’s more comfortable to just sit on cushions on the floor. I always do that with Seungmin and Hyunjin hyung.”

“Actually, where is Hyunjin?” Jisung asks. “Don’t you live with him?”

“Yeah, but he went with Felix to buy food.”

This just has Jisung even more confused.

“But doesn’t Felix live with Chan hyung?” Both other boys nod at this. “So everyone ditched their own roommate to go buy food with someone else. Okay. That makes perfect sense.”

Minho follows the exchange without understanding much of anything, except that everyone apparently lives with someone else here, and that no one went grocery shopping with their own roommate. Maybe. At least, that’s what he got from it.

A second later, they hear the front door open, followed by a familiar voice.

“We’re here, so I hope you’re not naked!”

Jisung rolls his eyes at Hyunjin’s shout. Clearly, the older doesn’t know that Chan and Jeongin are here already, otherwise he wouldn’t have felt the need to warn them about being naked.

“They’re not”, Chan yells back, trying to keep from laughing as he sees the grimace Jisung makes. “I can testify to that.”

Hyunjin appears in the doorway, Felix’s face peeking up over his shoulder a moment later. After seeing everyone sitting on the floor, the pair walks in and each find an empty spot around the low coffee table.

“Hi, welcome, pleasure to have you here”, Jisung says to the two new arrivals, grinning at them both. Jeongin gives Jisung a weird look.

“Did you write a script, or something? Isn’t that exactly what you said to us when we came?”

The grin on Jisung’s face is enough of an answer. Jeongin sighs.

“Okay, how about we start with dinner?” Chan suggests before the two younger boys can continue.

“I’ll go get plates”, Minho says, getting up from the floor to head toward the kitchen. Felix stands up immediately after.

“I’ll help”, he offers, and Minho sends him a small smile as thanks. The ones left in the living room begin to unpack all the food from the bags. Most of it is the kind of food that only needs to be heated up, since they’re lazy and kind of bad at cooking. At least most of them are.

Everyone helps out with preparing dinner. It’s a bit of a mess when six boys are trying to set the table while also heating up food and getting soda from the fridge in a kitchen meant for two, but they manage.

“Where’s Dori?” Felix asks once they’ve all sat down in the living room again. The boy seems a bit sad about the kitten not being here.

“Probably still hiding in Jisung’s room”, Minho replies. “She ran away when we started playing hockey earlier.”

At the questioning looks they’re given by both Felix and Hyunjin, the couple both open their mouths to tell the story again, but Chan interrupts them before they can start.

“Great, we don’t have to hear about that again, just know that it was a mess”, is the only explanation he gives the other two ‘00 liners. “Now, let’s eat.”

“Aren’t you supposed to say something first?” Jeongin asks, eyeing the food they’ve put on the table. “Like, some welcome speech or something. Isn’t there a tradition like that?”

The other boys all think over his question.

“I don’t know…?” Jisung answers hesitantly. “My family isn’t the most traditional, so I wouldn’t know.”

“Well, my family is _very_ traditional, but I can’t remember”, Minho says. He looks at Jisung. “Actually, I know a welcome speech, and it goes like this: Let’s eat.”

Everyone appears to be satisfied by that, and so they start to eat. Despite having worried earlier about not knowing how to talk to Jisung’s friends, at least the ones he hadn’t met, Minho finds himself actually enjoying dinner. Even though there are several confusing conversations going on at the same time, it’s nice to just sit down and talk with each other as they eat. It’s not your traditional family dinner on Christmas Eve, the lack of family members and a kitchen table making that evident, but it feels the same. Maybe even better.

"How do people find a boyfriend in the first in the first three months of college?” Hyunjin suddenly says. “It took me three months just to find out that there was a library on campus."

"By people, I assume you mean Jisung”, Chan guesses from the other side of the table.

"You assume correctly."

Minho grins at this and casts a glance at his boyfriend, who’s sitting between himself and Hyunjin. The younger sticks his tongue out at Hyunjin.

“Don’t give me too much credit. Our relationship is all thanks to the pikachu onesie.”

Okay, Minho wouldn’t give that onesie too much credit, but it did play a part in getting him to talk to his future boyfriend.

“If that’s how it works, Chan hyung should try wearing a pikachu onesie around Chaeyoung noona”, Hyunjin suggests, giving the oldest a teasing look.

Chan only smiles, definitely not resembling the lovesick idiot his friends all know that he is.

“Why are you smiling like that?” Felix questions, and Chan looks way too pleased as he shrugs half-heartedly, eyes still on the plate in front of him.

“Nothing. I just don’t think that onesie is needed.” He finally looks up from his food, his eyes practically shining. “Cause Chaeyoung already agreed to go on a date with me.”

-

Once the chaos after Chan’s confession has died down, most of them are done with their food and are just sitting around, talking to each other. Jisung takes the moment to get everyone’s attention.

“Hey guys”, he calls out, waiting until everyone is turned to him before continuing. “I know we said we wouldn’t do a gift exchange for the sake of everyone’s wallet, but in my defense, I didn’t buy anyone’s gift.”

“I should’ve seen this coming”, Jeongin says, sounding exasperated, but there’s a smile on his face as he says it. Jisung keeps telling them about the presents he’s prepared.

“I realized that I couldn’t just give everyone a painting as a gift, because then it wouldn’t be special since everyone would get the same thing, but I thought that I could still paint all of your gifts.” He then turns to Hyunjin. “Hyunjin, I stole your hoodie about two weeks ago.”

“If I’m getting my own hoodie as a gift, I’m suing”, Hyunjin threatens jokingly. “But actually, I don’t need it back, if that’s what this is about. You can keep it.”

The younger shakes his head. No one really understands what Hyunjin’s hoodie has to do with Jisung painting Christmas gifts for them all, but they suppose they’ll find out soon enough.

“No, you’re getting your hoodie back, but I kinda changed it a bit. That’s your gift.”

Hyunjin furrows his brows in confusion, watching as Jisung gets up and runs off to his bedroom. Felix and Jeongin start talking with each other while he’s gone, but they quiet down as soon as Jisung reappears, this time with a plastic bag in one hand. He returns to his seat with the bag in his lap, before taking out a hoodie that Minho assumes belongs to Hyunjin.

Everyone looks at Hyunjin as he unfolds the piece of fabric, the boy letting out a gasp once he can see it clearly. Everyone who’s not sitting right beside him try to lean forward to see whatever’s on it, because from their side, there’s nothing special about it.

Minho is on the right side, and sits close enough to see it. His eyes widen once he does.

There are flowers painted over the entire back of the hoodie, beautiful flowers painted in a style that Minho recognizes as Sungie’s.

“Sung… Ohmygosh, it’s so pretty!” Hyunjin exclaims, turning to his best friend. “Thank you so much!”

He pulls the younger into a hug, being mindful of the plastic bag still in Jisung’s lap. While they hug, Felix reaches for the hoodie so that the rest of them can get a better look at it.

While they’re all busy praising his work, Jisung pulls back from Hyunjin and takes something else from his bag. This time he holds it up for everyone to see before telling them who it’s for.

It’s a computer case, painted with just as intricate patterns as the ones on Hyunjin’s hoodie, made mostly with pastel colors. Someone gasps softly. Minho can’t tell who it is.

“This is for Felix”, Jisung says, holding it over for his near twin to take. Felix ignores the outheld gift and instead quickly scoots over so that he can give Jisung a hug. He mumbles something to Jisung that the rest of them can’t hear before pulling away.

Once Felix is sitting down on his cushion again, holding onto his new computer case, Jisung takes the last item out of the bag, this time displaying a backpack with a painted sunset on it.

“Wait, when did you steal my backpack?” Jeongin asks, letting everyone know who the gift is for. Jisung doesn’t give him an answer, only smirks and hands it over to the maknae.

“Not important.” Jisung then turns his eyes to Chan. “And hyung, I couldn’t bring your gift, because compared to what the others got, I couldn't actually steal this from you…”

“Wait”, Chan exclaims, a look of understanding on his face. “Is this about the guitar you asked me if you could paint?”

“Yeah.” Jisung smiles. “That’s why Changbin hyung forced you out of the studio yesterday. I was kind of worried you would go back later at night, but it doesn’t seem like you’ve seen it yet… The guitar I painted is still in the studio, but I have a picture of it.”

He unlocks his phone and brings up the picture before showing it to Chan. The older leans forward to see better, mouth slightly open as he stares at what Jisung has created.

“Wow…” he breathes. “I’ll definitely play more guitar now.”

“You could serenade your girlfriend!” Felix says, only slightly joking, but Chan gives him a look that makes the rest of them laugh.

A traditional family dinner wouldn’t have been anywhere near as fun or comfortable as this. At the same time, maybe this is their family dinner in a way. It certainly feels that way.

-

Minho had been planning to approach Jisung once everyone else was gone, but the younger beats him to it.

When Minho has closed the door behind their friends, he turns around to find Jisung standing in front of him with a heart-shaped smile on his face, holding headphones in one hand and his phone in the other.

Suspecting that there’s something for him to listen to, Minho asks,

“Should we go sit down?”

Jisung nods in agreement, and they both head for the living room, taking their usual seats next to each other. Once they’ve done that, Jisung wordlessly puts the headphones over Minho’s head before showing his phone screen to the older.

It’s a recording, clearly something Jisung has made himself. The boy doesn’t explain it in any way, simply hits play and lets Minho listen for himself.

_Even in a noisy city  
Do whatever you want  
Sit in the sunshine and close your eyes  
Look at me for a second_

There’s a vibe Minho can’t explain, something old and futuristic at the same time, and it’s a very pure emotion. It has a style that gives a nostalgic feeling, and Jisung’s vocals are beautiful as always. It’s been a while since Minho has heard him sing, but he’s instantly reminded of how great the younger’s voice truly is.

The song is over way too soon.

Minho lets Jisung take the headphones off him as he tries not to combust from all that song made him feel.

“Wait”, he says. “I need a while to recover from all that talent. A few years, maybe decades.”

Jisung snorts at his comment.

“Hyung”, he begins. “I wrote that song, if that wasn’t obvious already. I tried really hard to come up with something to give you for Christmas, something meaningful, but I didn’t want to do the same as to everyone else and just paint something. So I wrote that.”

He looks at Minho, and the older stares back at him.

“You wrote that song… For me?”

Jisung nods.

And holy shit, Minho doesn’t think he’s ever been this in love with someone before. Words aren’t even enough for it.

He gently places a hand on Jisung’s cheek and leans forward, ghosting his lips over Jisung’s, close enough that they can feel the warmth of each other’s breath. The younger closes the gap.

It’s nowhere near the first time Minho’s kissed Jisung, but every time might as well be the first, because it feels just as magical every time.

This time, Jisung tastes like Christmas. In the past, Christmas to Minho was synonymous with something cold and shallow, but now, it’s the complete opposite. It tastes warm and feels familiar, loving. Jisung feels like that to him.

They pull away just enough to be able to speak, their faces still close together.

“I tried to write a heartfelt letter”, Minho says, meeting Jisung’s gaze. “But I couldn’t find the words for what I wanted to say, so I’m just gonna give you your gift instead.”

He reaches into his pocket and brings out a small box, opening it for Jisung to see what’s inside.

“My aunt makes jewelry”, Minho continues as Jisung lets out a soft gasp, reaching out to touch the necklace inside the box. “I found this in her store, and she said I could have it, so I asked her to engrave something for me. Look at the back.”

He holds it out for Jisung to take, which the boy does, glancing up at Minho before turning it to look closer.

The necklace is all in silver, and there’s a small heart hanging from it. When Jisung turns the heart around after Minho’s instructions, his eyes find some small letters engraved on the back and holds it up to his face to be able to read.

_Even dark shadows only exist with light_

“It’s so poetic”, Jisung mumbles, feeling the silvery heart with his finger before looking back at Minho.

“Good.” The older smiles. “It fits you well, then.”

Jisung holds the necklace out to Minho, leaning back a little so they aren’t up in each other’s faces.

“Help me put it on?”

Minho doesn’t respond, simply takes the jewelry from Jisung and reaches to put it around his neck. It feels oddly intimate, in a way that helping someone put on a necklace definitely shouldn’t, but it’s not like feelings care much about how they should or shouldn’t work.

Jisung leans forward to peck Minho’s lips again, and the older can feel Jisung smile against his lips.

It’s strange how he could feel more at home with some people he’s only met a handful of times than with his own parents. Then again, _the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb_ , or however the saying goes. A found family is worth more than a biological one. The difference lies in whether or not they want you there with them, something Minho’s parents don’t. His friends, however, they do want him there.

And his boyfriend probably wants him, too, if the way his mouth trails down Minho’s neck is any indication.

So, in conclusion: Christmas starts with a question, and it ends with a kiss.

(or maybe it’s technically more of a makeout session, but we don’t have to get technical here. point is, it ends well. really well.)


End file.
